Environment health and safety (EHS) compliance is a rapidly growing concern highly monitored by corporations, and regulation governing forces. Each day, millions of employees are exposed to various work conditions that span across multiple industries. These industries conduct business, and create products in ways that directly impact both the health and environment of the business and public. As a result, highly regulated policies, procedures, and workflows are required to keep both employees and the public healthy and safe.

In 1970, legislators passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Since then, OSHA and EHS compliance regulations have been on a mission to ensure companies implement systems that keep people and the environment safe. In turn, companies may have several compliance regulations to keep up with, on-site audits to perform to ensure they are staying compliant. Creating a culture of compliance at a company comes with a cost. Compliance best-practices help reduce the risk of being fined for not abiding by OSHA regulations.

EHS Software Can Help

Employees responsible for overseeing EHS workflows and operations may find a low-code environment health and safety software useful. Keeping employees healthy and safe makes a workplace more productive. On the other hand, it also requires EHS compliance regulations to be met, risk to be examined, security to be boosted, and audits to be made. This could be difficult to keep up with, especially when the EHS compliance regulations keep changing. Companies can simplify their workflows by streamlining this with a mobile app that is built with a low-code app development platform.

The right mobile app will work across multiple industries and work with complex EHS compliance checklists and regulations. Modern technology gives EHS program managers the ability to change, customize, and update what people need to to to remain compliant without the use of an IT department. This software allows users to remain consistent with current EHS compliance regulations while reducing risk that occurs when papers and pens are used. Using such a platform can help both the public and job site by:

Preventing accidents from occurring that could be associated with abnormal or unusual operating conditions.

Reducing the adverse effects that are associated with normal operating conditions.

Any employee who understands the current EHS and OSHA regulations can create and customize workflows that are unique to each company and industry. After which, a digital work Stream™ can be developed to significantly enhance the way employees oversee and manage compliance best practices.

How It Works

All EHS compliance checklists and forms can be digitized on a mobile device, computer, or tablet, and stored in the cloud. Companies can then use the app for on-site audits on or offline. Once a device is online, data can be stored and shared in real-time via the cloud. There are also pre-made digital diagrams available which are unique for each industry, and can be digitally drawn on. Once a workflow system is in place, staff can track all employee progress and tasks through a work collaboration feature.

Low-code development platforms create autonomy within a department as they help businesses significantly reduce their need for IT professionals. It also helps prevent a backlog in the IT department. Simply put it allows business leaders to build and change business applications using visual designers.

EHS software allows for the automation of multiple internal business processes that would take months for a developer to create. Even though the applications are complex and relevant, they can still be built in a fraction of the time, for a fraction of the cost. Low-code software increases productivity and is comprised of mobile, customized workflows. At this point, it is not necessary to manually code anything to build enterprise solutions.

Notably, we offer EHS policy compliance solutions. Pulpstream helps companies develop compliance applications in the cloud to simplify workflows, save time, and reduce costs. Get ready to have some free time in your work day. Get in touch with us if you’d like to learn more.

To truly inspire employees to follow best practices in their respective industries, they need tools to help them perform their jobs better. Getting employees to follow best practices is especially challenging.

It’s like pulling a brand-new computer out of the box—one that has the latest software with all the bells and whistles. When a device has no performance limitations, employees can use it to perform high quality work.

Employees feel more inspired when using the latest tools and technology. Unreliable tools and technology are demotivating. In fact, when employees feel limited at the workplace due to outdated tools or poor performing technology, they face the day knowing that they can’t give their best in a timely fashion―they have to work twice as hard to produce the same results.

Employees are mentally healthier working for companies that give their employees better tools to do their job, according to a recent study. In fact, 84% of people would consider leaving their current jobs for those that have access to better technology.

Supplying employees with the latest tools inspires them to do better and face their jobs each day prepared to give 100%. When we remove the barriers that prevent people from doing their best, everything changes. Best practices are much easier to follow, which helps the entire company.

Having the right tools to manage Environment Health and Safety programs (EHS) helps employees feel inspired, revved up and ready to bring their “A” game.

Employees can use mobile devices to manage inspections, incidents, and audits. They can also easily capture evidence, such as sensor information, geological information, and photos. Having a flexible software development platform like Pulpstream can contribute to the overall productivity of the team, especially during unplanned situations.

When things don’t go as planned and changes need to be made quickly, an EHS software system with a drag and drop business process editor empowers business leaders to experiment in real time. Linking mobile phones into the system enables businesses to rapidly address issues and initiate corrective action on the spot—and in real time too. You can simultaneously deploy people to sites across the globe with fresh audits or inspections on their phones. Within the hour you can have a data visualization that contains information about all your lines of business.

Mobile devices are a fantastic tool for empowering employees to unleash themselves from their desks, conduct work wherever, and measure performance improvements with real-time data. Using EHS software on a mobile device guides people to do their business processes in the most efficient way, following best practices. Using software essentially creates guardrails that can help an employee stay in compliance even on a tough day. The effortlessness of interacting with a device that they feel comfortable with, contributes to the feeling of a job well-done.

Corrective and preventative actions (CAPAs) play a critical role in ensuring that employees are consistently in compliance with risk mitigation policies. But effective CAPA management continues to challenge enterprises around the world. Specialized quality, environment, health, and safety (QEHS) software that is based in the cloud can significantly calibrate CAPA strategy execution, in part because it aligns locations across borders in real time.

CAPAs generally include the following:

Routine inspections

Accident investigations

Trainings

Near-miss data evaluations

When QEHS programs are managed with cloud-native applications, companies have a much better chance of implementing and running a successful programs. Having a central repository of information that can be accessed from anywhere empowers teams to streamline interdepartmental communication. It also enables teams to keep track of all actions taken. The endless storage capabilities of the cloud ensures that nothing, no matter how small, slips through the cracks or is forgotten. In fact, it empowers companies to mine their historical data and use it during predictive analytics endeavors.

Types of tracking in a successful QEHS program

There are different types of tracking functions in QEHS software that can be categorized as either proactive or reactive. The proactive approach actively monitors operations to determine if a work environment is safe for employees. Every inspection, assessment, and interaction is tracked to create an record of a site’s health, as seen over time. For companies that are interested in year-over-year improvement, keeping track of performance is vital to success.

Reactive methods, on the other hand, simply track evidence of non compliance. This includes the investigation of incidents and accidents or tracking work-related sickness. This type of tracking is often seen in companies that simply wish to remain compliant with government regulations.

A successful QEHS program is not only proactive, it is also quantitative. Traditionally performance scoring this has been done on paper and pencil. It often required inspectors to file forms in triplicate to make sure all supervisors and stakeholders are kept informed. Measuring and tracking the success of a strategy across multiple locations this way has been known to lead to workforce malaise. Calculating scores across multiple locations is much simpler when using mobile device that instantly transmit information to the cloud.

When a quarterly inspection contains hundreds of questions, leveraging the cloud can liberate employees from the pain of keeping track of paper forms and Excel spreadsheets. Forms no longer need to be filed in multiple places. All records and evidence are immediately available via the cloud, enabling stakeholders to easily track progress. Enabling team members to file incident reports or assign corrective actions on mobile devices also reduces barriers to report creation, which unlocks near miss data that can be used during future strategy development. Creating predictive models that leverage all available information can be resource intensive. Designing for a future we cannot yet imagine is a challenge. However, it is an attainable goal.

Effectively tracking QEHS operations today

In our digital age, a robust QEHS program depends heavily on the effectiveness of the way it is managed. Every organization has different elements that need to be monitored; and QEHS software has to be able to address all of it. Whether you implement a turnkey solution or use a highly-customized mobile app to do your inspections or assessments, tracking actions must be timely, especially if there could be an investigation at a later date.

Tracking plays an important role in not only identifying problems; it also sheds light on what actually caused them, how they could be resolved, and how they could be prevented. When multiple inspectors are working in tandem across multiple locations, the amount of aggregated data adds up. Digitally managing this data with applications that are synced with the cloud enables organizations to effectively track and manage information from a centralized platform in real time. This comes in quite handy when decision makers are demanding rapid data analysis during an investigation or an audit.

This is a primary reason why low-code, cloud-native app development is perfectly suited for the QEHS space. By adopting a low-code approach to app development, anyone within the organization can rapidly build or update the software used to capture, monitor, and analyze program data. If it is determined that a change needs to be made to a policy, the app can be updated in real time through the cloud — without writing any code.

Cloud-native app development on a low-code platform like Pulpstream can help rapidly develop, implement, mobilize and customize your QEHS program in a cost-effective way, without engaging your IT department. Furthermore, this approach would equip your organization tools that bolster continuous improvement with real-time data, creating a culture of painless compliance.

The way we do things at work and in our personal lives is going through a period of rapid transformation. Things are moving so rapidly that it can feel like you need eyes in the back of your head to keep track of everything. Instead of spending money on another specialized employee, why not simply open a new pair of digital eyes.

Throughout the past year, we’ve spoken with business leaders at some of the world’s top companies at conferences. We asked them the question: What business processes at your company are causing you pain? Consistently claims process management has been in the top 3 responses. Because there are so many working parts and so many stakeholders, oversight and milestone management is cumbersome.

Now that we have a layer of information associated with almost every aspect of our physical lives, how do we apply these hybrid experience expectations to the work environment? How do we connect the dots in the claims process and consistently keep track of them?

You could reimagine the way you keep your workplace safe to start. Digitalization is the next step. Pouring digital technologies into your risk management and claims process management workflows is a solid foundation for an organization. Environmental conditions at a place of work have a direct impact on employee well being, risk exposure, and in turn insurance and workers compensation claims. Until now, revealing the relationships between work environment conditions with claims management has been a challenge. That is no longer the case. With low-code application development platforms that manage digital business processes across all devices, we can rapidly connect the dots.

Claims oversight with companion data visualizations that automatically generate data insights can deliver a 360-degree view of your operations. Not only do they help you monitor the performance of risk mitigation endeavors, data visualizations can play a critical role in better communicating environmental, health and safety (EHS) metrics to a diverse and distributed workforce. Visuals communicate to a wider audience of people of different ages, education levels, and even those who might speak in different languages.

Seeing the data through the eyes of an enterprise application can help ensure that all stakeholders are alert and responsive to critical information that can help prevent workplace injuries (and potentially save lives). Why not open a new pair of digital eyes through which you can identify and mitigate potential risks?

Optimize claims process management with digital experiences

Claims process management software can enable enterprises to process claims from a distributed workforce much faster while eliminating the need to physically fill out a bunch of paperwork. What’s more, taking a digital approach to claims management can significantly expedite the endeavor. We’ve seen this successfully executed across many industries.

For example, a project manager in the construction industry can respond to an incident much faster by utilizing a enterprise application that’s powered by a low-code claims process management platform like Pulpstream. The claims investigator who is in the field would be notified in real-time about the incident. They could be routed there automatically based on enterprise staffing logic that’s tailored to the business strategy. This could be based on location, business unit, or a custom rule assignment. They’d use a mobile device like a smartphone or a tablet to collect information about the incident for a report. They could also easily collect photographic evidence to support their observations, even if they are in an area with little or no cell service.

At the same time, the employee that was impacted during the incident could be notified via text or email that they need to file a statement about happened. They can do all this with their preferred mobile device, through the cloud. As a result, the project manager can rapidly and simultaneously deploy his colleagues to where they’re needed, while getting a 360-degree view how this incident impacts the business. The project manager can see trends about incidents to determine potential outcomes and make the best decision about how to handle this to prevent or support future claims.

Any inefficient parts of the process can be changed without calling IT, or waiting on an engineer. Within a drag and a drop, a digital incident or claims process can be optimized in minutes. New stakeholders can rapidly be included in the decision making process if needed. By digitalizing the claims process management experience, enterprises can not only respond to incidents at lighting speed, they can also save time and money during optimizations, and restore the company to normal service levels at a much faster pace. Potential risks can be eliminated by harnessing the data created by each touch point in the experience. Each touch point can be automatically imported into a data visualization.

Data visualization streamlines operations

Creating a visual representation of your data simplifies the endeavor of understanding the relationships between the data. For example, for a trucking company, using historical data to make predictions can dramatically impact the bottom line and workforce readiness.

You could easily create data visualizations that show which drivers were involved in accidents over a period of five to ten years. Comparing that with location data, could create powerful visualizations that unlock insights. Armed with this information, businesses could alert drivers about unsafe conditions. Drivers could be trained about how to safely navigate conditions at accident prone locations, which could prevent future claims from being filed. Businesses can keep track of who has taken training and determine if there is a correlation between training and accident reduction, or litigation related to a business unit or location. In turn, this could reduce risk and the potential costs of litigation for the company.

With data monitoring software, predictive analytics can calculate the likelihood of an incident occurring at a certain location. Enterprises leaders would be empowered to mitigate or avoid potential consequences.

Automated, digital data oversight can help people make better decisions about future business strategies, and overcome biases that people have. With a low-code enterprise application development, insights derived from the data can be quickly translated into customized training modules that enhance enterprise safety protocols and reduce risk exposure faster.

The technology exists to build new sets of digital eyes that see the data points and translate them into data visualizations that humans can understand. Pulpstream’s low-code, claims and incident management software solutions can do this and more. Pulpstream can help you automate claims and safety process oversight across all your lines of business, without ever writing a single line of code.

Low-code application development is on the rise as it seamlessly meets many enterprise requirements. Unlike traditional app development where every line of code is manually written, business people can utilize an intuitive drag-and-drop editor to build visual models of the app’s user interface, business logic, and integrations.

This approach can also be extended to enable the control of all risk management processes within a single centralized platform. Furthermore, it essentially eliminates the skills gap while streamlining app maintenance and updates.

Because low-code development enables the rapid deployment of applications, it can play a critical role in the efficiency and the effectiveness of risk management processes through the deployment of innovative solutions.

As enterprises go through a digital transformation, low-code apps can help modernize operations while reducing risk through increased control and demonstrability.

What’s more, all this can be achieved without compromising compliance, security, or efficiency as the experts behind the low-code application development platform will have that covered.

Managing enterprise risk and significantly reducing it happens in four stages:

Planning and designing

Implementing and benchmarking

Measuring and monitoring

Learning and reporting

What’s the role of low code app development within these four stages? Let’s take a look.

1. Planning and designing

When companies go through a digital transformation, they have a unique opportunity to evaluate each function that’s about to go through digital automation against their enterprise risk management policies.

Furthermore, there is also an opportunity here to develop low-code applications that can consolidate systems to seamlessly track, analyze, and mitigate risk. Additionally, when you design apps that centralize records and communications, you can also benefit from leveraging the data generated by these apps.

2. Implementation and benchmarking

When you engage in enterprise risk management through low-code application development, the implementation stage should be a seamless experience. However, during this process, it will be important to conduct a risk assessment of each procedure that is going through a digital transformation.

When traditional functions go through digital automation, you also have an opportunity to set benchmarks. This means the organization should create benchmarks that help determine the significance of predefined risks. However, the nature of these benchmark tests will heavily depend on the type of risk.

3. Measuring and monitoring

A low-code application development platform like Pulpstream helps enterprises improve continuously by visualizing valuable data. Furthermore, you can also automate reminders for corrective actions, renewals, and audits to ensure that nothing is missed.

When workflows are digitally automated, you can also take advantage of real-time data analytics. This will enable various stakeholders to not only identify and mitigate risks but also to identify new business opportunities for growth.

4. Learning and reporting

During the final stage of the enterprise risk management process, you get to learn from experience and report on performance. At this juncture, enterprises can review their risk exposure, as well as risk appetite, and measure the exact contribution that risk management and mitigation programs have made to the success of the organization.

The reason for engaging in this activity must be clearly established within the company. If you fail to do this during the early stages of digital transformation, you won’t be able to evaluate whether the mitigation endeavors were in line with expectations.

When you build low-code apps, you can set up protocols to monitor and report on risk indicators to evaluate the contribution being made by risk management programs. This function can also be extended to the evaluation of the appropriateness of control mechanisms that were selected.

If something isn’t working as well as expected, low-code application development platforms can empower enterprises to rapidly make appropriate changes. This means that business people themselves can analyze and identify potential risks within business processes and resolve it themselves without the IT department getting involved.

This low-code approach to risk management also provides business leaders with more control when it comes to managing that risk. As low-code app development platforms come with data integration, cross-platform support, and security, they can be easily customized to meet each business requirement securely.

As companies grow, it’s increasingly important for employees to effectively collaborate and communicate in real-time with reliable tools. Tools to manage business processes have the power to encourage efficiency and job satisfaction. They impact the way employees feel about their role in the workplace—either creating a sense of efficacy or inspiring the behaviors of learned helplessness.

Effective work tools can empower and motivate employees to perform at their best, or simply punch a clock. A growing trend among businesses is the creation of a digital culture that enables employees to conduct work with emerging technologies.

When a team has the right tools, they can complete their assignments with accuracy and meet deadlines without friction. When you’re focused on a task, rather than the tools you’re using to conduct it, you simply work faster.

Getting things done on mobile devices has been commonplace in the US since 2008. However, outside of the consumer space, many employees still experience bottlenecks in their work flows that impact their confidence and sense of job ownership.

How to Prepare for Future Workforces

When an employee is hired, candidates are often filtered on the basis of their previous work experiences. The tools they know how to use are considered during a hiring process. However, business strategies change on a quarterly basis. New technologies emerge at an equally rapid pace, inspiring businesses to consider new ways of conducting business. How do you hire employees to use tools that haven’t been invented? Do you hire based on their domain expertise? Their capacity to learn?

Hiring someone based on the detailed nuances that go into each job function is the way to go. Design thinking is increasingly prevalent at technology companies in the US, because it helps people solve complex problems with practical, action-oriented solutions. Fascinating new tools are emerging that bolster a businesses’ ability to drive cross-functional team collaboration.

How to Stimulate Productivity

A business with the latest technology for streamlining tasks enables a high level of performance, which can enhance employee confidence and self perceptions of value. Who wouldn’t want to feel like an industry leader on the forefront of innovation? Creating goals, and having the right tools to reach those goals creates a sense of purpose within a team, and a higher level of satisfaction and production on a job site. But when technology gets in the way of your productivity, that creates stress.

When employees rely heavily on specialized tools to do their jobs, it’s important these tools are fast and reliable. If every time you tried to send an email your browser shut down, it would be frustrating. Over time, this persistent failure to succeed would lead to feelings of anger, frustration, and possibly a learned helplessness. These are a major threats to an employee’s stress levels and sense of efficacy.

Many companies are finding that a low-code application platform can help them create a digital culture in which employees can focus on what they’re doing, rather than how they’re doing it. Low-code application development is proving to be a reliable tool, because it can help teams modify how they do work as things change. It empowers business leaders to change the work flows that employees use to achieve business goals in real time. They can rapidly respond to shifts in marketplaces, technologies, workforces or regulations.

This reduces stress normally associated with staying in compliance, and meeting deadlines and goals—without the use of an IT department. It allows employees to:

work reliably on mobile phones or tablets

work wherever they are most productive, as they are no longer confined to their desks

gain access to digital resources in the cloud

get things done faster

A low-code app development platform empowers business leaders to redesign business processes, aka work flows, based on data. This enables them to:

visually change any part of a business process without calling IT

provide custom user experiences that guide employees through best practices

experiment with new workflows to drive progress on goals, such as engagement

create dynamic reports that display how all lines of business are performing in real time

They don’t have to manually code anything to build effective enterprise software solutions that facilitate best practices. Companies that lack such tools, and use antiquated technology such as paper and pens, deny their employees the opportunity to perform at their peak. The tools used at work play a tremendous role in how employees feel about the work they do.

Tools in Highly Regulated Environments

In some industries that are highly regulated, compliance regulations can be seen as a necessary evil. But they don’t have to be. Businesses can use low-code application development platforms to design workflows that help employees easily comply with regulations, internal audits, and more. Regulating agencies impose significant fines for businesses that are not in compliance, which can get expensive. Furthermore, generating the reports and audits is not the most exciting work, which affects the way employees feel on the job. Automatically generating reports seems like a no brainer. But not everyone has been exposed to the idea that this is possible.

Having access to digital tools while traveling between job sites, can make employees happier. It can make them feel more free to be productive. Notably, digital business process management tools reduce operating costs. This makes bosses happy.

When employees use tools that enable them to successfully complete job assignments without friction, this impacts how they feel about their work. Being forced to use tools that are buggy or leash you to a desk can be quite stressful. Digitizing operations gives business leaders the freedom to change at the pace of their imagination. It also helps them create digital cultures in which people don’t have to think about how they do work; they simply focus on getting that work done.

Low-code application development allows almost all of us to feel like software engineers within minutes. This is because low code software can be used to develop applications easily without years training, experience, or considerable technical knowledge. This innovative idea gets non-technical business people onboard to help corporations become more resilient while seamlessly adapting to change. It’s also a fantastic approach to respond to the growing shortage of top tech talent within the country.

Imagine developing a business process management application to respond to an enterprise problem without ever taking a computer science course? That’s exactly what we’re talking about here and this can be achieved within a matter of minutes, hours, or days. Not six months down the road!

Even if your company has to deal with multiple data inputs, a low-code application development platform like Pulpstream can empower a new generation of citizen developers (or non-technical employees building apps) to take the initiative and solve enterprise issues rapidly.

How does low-code application development work?

Low-code application development platforms provide an opportunity for business people to build apps, even very complex ones. As they can accept all types of data inputs from users, devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT), they can deliver significant value to the business.

What’s great is the fact that software engineers can also join in at any time. Furthermore, you can also easily integrate it with existing systems.

All this combined can have a positive impact on your bottom line as you won’t need to totally change your current IT infrastructure to adapt to a custom app.

Low-code development can be critical going forward as customer experiences are vital to remaining relevant. So if there are inefficient processes having a negative impact on customer experiences, you can quickly build an app to fix it rapidly.

Whether it’s for IoT, business process management, or streamlining workflows, low code application development is going to have a huge impact on corporate coding in the years to come. This is supported by Gartner’s prediction that approximately 70% of large enterprises will have established successful citizen development policies by 2020 (up from 20% in 2010).

But for you and I to become successful citizen developers, corporations need to understand the opportunities presented by low-coding initiatives. This can be tricky as we are all used to IT department handling all technology development initiatives (without any support from other areas of the company).

The low-code approach creates business value

When you embrace low-code application development, you will immediately benefit from the in-depth knowledge of the citizen developer. This means that the application will be developed by someone who has a significant understanding of the underlying daily business processes that need to be improved to enhance efficiency.

In the end, the business will have a custom app (within a few hours or days) that fits the business’ specific needs. This can’t be easily accomplished with a one-size-fits all solution available in the app store.

This exactly what Systems Services of America Foods (SSA Foods) achieved by embracing Pulpstream’s low-code development platform. By building a custom app, SSA Foods was able to benefit immediately from more consistent workflow processes, real-time insights of performance data across all operations, and seamless KPI measurements (without killing a bunch of trees!).

If they took the traditional software development approach, it might have taken almost six months before they encountered a prototype. But with Pulpstream, they were able to see real business value quickly.

Slow response times can make you vulnerable to competitive market pressures to be more efficient and provide enhanced customer experiences. Furthermore, we have all become used to connecting and working on the go, so it’s important to take advantage of technology to have relevant data at our fingertips.

A low-code application development platform can take some of the pressure off by increasing efficiency and user experiences across the board by digitizing business processes.

This means that one or more citizen developers can quickly adapt to changes by building mobile apps to work from anywhere, manage cases in the cloud, take advantage of real-time performance data (including KPIs), centralize records, and retire legacy systems with a simple drag and drop approach.

Everyone benefits in this scenario as a low-code approach to a business problem can be implemented quickly. This, in turn, makes employees and the organization as a whole more productive and more efficient.

As a result, low-code application development can impact your customer experiences significantly through citizen coding and business process automation.

An area of concern for businesses today lies in implementing claims and incident management processes in the office. It may feel like things are getting out of control at times when there are multiple claims to be filed, and a lack of manpower in-house to manage them. When companies are faced with claims management problems, claims may become backed up, and the company may receive several denials from insurance companies at an alarming rate. This is an issue that can really impact a company’s revenue stream. When claims begin to stack up, and denials are coming in for a variety of reasons, the office can become a stressful and hectic place to be.

Once a company is faced with such claims management issues, there’s a chance that employee morale will in turn suffer, as staff become overwhelmed by all of the paperwork involved with traditional methods of conducting incident management and claims. The good news is that there is a solution. Since we are in living in a digital age, these processes can also be digitized. Paperwork is very old school, and not a necessity these days. With the touch of a few buttons on a mobile device or computer, one can download a way to streamline these processes, and manage all event reports, investigative reports, witness statements—all the stuff that can bury employees in paperwork—and communicate data in real-time, utilizing intelligent, automated reports that allow for tracking data & trends. This can free up several hours of employee time so that staff can work smarter, not harder.

It’s quite common for business requirements for compliance, claims, risk, etc. to change on a dime, and it can be tough to respond quickly; keeping up with the ever-changing business landscape. This is where low-code application development comes in handy. When the IT department is backed up, and payroll cannot support a larger staff, there is no better way to implement said changes into a company’s claim and incident management workflow. A user-friendly interface that anyone can learn in a day or two is key. There is no need to call IT, as any employee with a smartphone or computer can implement changes to stay ahead.

Once staff have the power to integrate their legacy system with new digital processes they create, the company will save a great deal of time, resources, and money. Streamlined processes save a company money by reducing the amount of payroll hours that need to be spent doing things with paper and pens, and waiting for employees to share information with a variety of departments. If employees can submit data online and store it in the cloud in real-time, each and every department will be able to access said info immediately. Not only will costs be cut, but risk will be reduced, as there will be less room for error. Now employees can focus on the most important aspects of their jobs without having to become stressed out and worried about claims and incident management, or waiting for the IT department to implement any changes.

Is there such a solution in existence today? Absolutely! Pulpstream offers such a solution.The Pulpstream app is also available in an offline mode, so that employees may conduct business when they are not able to connect to the Internet. This app is available on Android, iOS, MS Surface and web.

As companies shift their focus from internal processes and systems to customer-facing activities, it’s vital to facilitate cross-channel collaboration among employees, partners, customers, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Digital business process automation can make this happen. It helps enterprises transform the way they operate by streamlining workflows to drive critical initiatives. It is transforming companies that want to support emerging digital work patterns, architectures, and devices. In our digital age, innovative businesses must closely collaborate not only internally, but also externally with their customers and partners.

According to Forrester analyst, Rob Koplowitz, traditional business process management has been focused on removing costs. Modern digital business process management is driven by customer engagement. This is primarily because customers are now at the core of business technology priorities.

Furthermore, digital business process management isn’t dependent on developers and analysts, instead, it’s designed to be accessible to business people with a focus on low-code. That’s why mobile business process platform, Pulpstream, enables business users to rapidly develop and deploy mobile applications with zero need for new code.

For example, Interstate Batteries used to use the traditional pen-and paper method to conduct environment, health, and safety (EHS) checks. With the help of Pulpstream, now they complete these processes across 76 locations with a mobile device, even in areas without cellular service.

This transformation also allows Interstate Batteries to make adjustments by tracking KPI trends. This process was digitally transformed within four months, something billion dollar companies traditionally take six to twelve months to achieve.

But low-code development isn’t purely for business users to build apps, it’s also used by developers within traditional IT departments who collaborate with business users to accelerate development. What’s more, it can also free up software engineers to focus more on complex tasks that will enhance innovation across the company.

Why less coding?

The traditional approach to coding derails innovation by limiting the speed of development for companies rely on coders. Furthermore, the complexities of traditional development approaches go against the philosophy of innovation and rapid iterative development.

It’s also the opposite of what end-users have become accustomed to. Both your customers and employees have grown used to and expect fast and frequent software releases.

Low-code development brings business and IT together to deliver new customer-facing applications quickly and collaboratively. This can also be achieved without costly complex custom development projects or a large overhaul of existing core systems.

Instead, the users are empowered to take advantage of innovative tools that provide a real world alternative to traditional software programming.

What makes rapid development and deployment of customer-facing applications possible?

Digital, business process management technology has three main components that make rapid development and deployment of customer-facing applications possible:

Simplified visual modeling to accelerate development: Business users can build apps by using visual design and workflow tools instead of traditional lines (and lines) of code. This enables domain experts with significant business insights to collaborate seamlessly with software engineers or even lead the whole development process.

Pre-built elements: Business users can speed up the development process by inserting pre-built templates, reusable components, and widgets into the visual design process.

Cloud deployment: As everything is hosted on a cloud, both business and IT users can engage on the same platform that manages all requirements of the project. Design, development, deployment can also take place in the cloud without the need to set-up anything.

This approach can enable the project to focus solely on solving a business problem without having to think about programming languages or IT infrastructure.

As a result, existing and future customer needs can be met within a matter of minutes, days, or weeks, not months. It can also be implemented to follow a continuous delivery based-model where the application is driven by user feedback.

Enterprises have been transformed by digital, business process automation as key business stakeholders no longer have to wait six months to see an application after defining its requirements. Rather, all those involved can now work together in an iterative agile work stream where prototypes will be ready quickly.

This will enable the project to be driven by user feedback and not the original scope of the project. As enterprises embrace a distributed workforce model, a digital, mobile-centric business process platform will also enable employees spread out across the country and around the globe to streamline workflows and deploy it within minutes.

By eliminating inefficient tools like pens, papers, and excel sheets, productivity can be optimized significantly across industries. For example, work that requires field reporting, inspections, and site audits can now be conducted much faster by taking advantage of a low-code customized mobile app.

This is exactly what the Branch Group did to digitally transform their construction site inspection process with Pulpstream. This initiative significantly reduced the amount of time it took to make decisions and eliminated the use of approximately 10,000 sheets of paper, annually.

Furthermore, as Pulpstream’s customer-centric business processes will also seamlessly integrate with data from DocuSign, EchoSign, and Saleforce.com, you can also make adjustments based on key KPIs.

As Pulpstream enables the use of digital forms instead of paper, you can easily keep track of information as you will never lose another document.

The insurance industry has been historically averse to change. In fact, not much has changed in the property and casualty insurance business since 1752 when Benjamin Franklin helped create the first fire insurance provider in the United States called the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire.

However, over the past couple of years, the insurance industry has been going through a radical transformation that has been spurred by a series of digital innovations. Some key technologies that are revolutionizing this sector are as follows:

The digitization of the industry will be a boon for customers in the years to come as they will be able to benefit from better service, more choice, and lower prices.

However, the primary forces driving the current digital insurance policy management evolution are technologies like digital process automation and captive insurance management software. This is because this technology has the potential to significantly increase revenue, reduce claims payouts, and cut administration costs.

So how do captive insurers achieve this? Let’s dive right in and take a look at five ways to drive digital insurance policy management by taking advantage of flexible software.

1. Seamless tracking claims administration

Tracking claims administration is at the core of managing any type of insurance program (as this is where the revenue is generated). When you incorporate a captive insurance management software, you can significantly enhance the processing and review of claims.

As all the data collected from multiple touch points will be easily accessible in the cloud, agents can benefit from higher accuracy while saving time. Furthermore, you can also automate some of the administrative processes to lower the costs associated with claims administration.

2. Set up an infrastructure with ease

What’s great about captive insurance management software is the fact that it’s sole purpose is to make your life easy. So you don’t have to worry about getting a degree in computer science before setting up infrastructure.

In fact, anyone can easily achieve this within minutes. Furthermore, it will support your business to achieve its objectives through total customization.

3. Streamlined risk management processes

The risk management information system plays a vital role within the insurance industry as it integrates risk management in both the parent company and the captive insurance company. This means that insurance professionals in-house or on the field can have seamless access to high-quality data.

What’s more, they will also be able to benefit from streamlined risk management process, ease of reporting, and flexibility. This approach is proven to save time and produces much better results for all aspects of risk management (including cutting hazards and streamlining renewals) as you can eliminate anecdotal justifications for action.

Not all captive insurance agencies are the same, as a result, it can sometimes be difficult to adapt an out of the box solution for your business. But if you take advantage of a low-code application development platform like Pulpstream, customizing your captive insurance management software will be as simple as dragging and dropping what you need.

This means that you don’t have to hire software engineers or spend six to twelve months waiting for your application to be developed. The low-code approach to development will help you achieve this within minutes, hours, or days, not months.

You also won’t have to incur the significant costs associated with software development. When the app is ready, you can enable your staff to engage in digital process automation by setting up business processes, procedures and reporting facilities, collect data from multiple touch points, and backup and host it in a cloud for seamless access from anywhere, at any time (cost-effectively).

5. Customer relationship management

As a result, you will be empowered to deliver exceptional service cost-effectively while remaining compliant. What’s more, staff will be able to benefit from a unified interface where they will have a complete integrated view of customer interactions with agents, service representatives, and much more to help you achieve customer and company objectives.

Software like Pulpstream’s Comprehensive Captive Insurance Solutions will also significantly improve your one-call resolution rates as well as the success rates of up-sells and cross-sells. So when you digitize and streamline your risk management functions and workflows, everyone (including the customer) benefits.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) makes the internet less visible and more deeply embedded in people’s lives, and artificial intelligence (AI) makes decisions for us for efficiency’s sake, how do humans stay relevant in the workforce, especially those of us who may not have college degrees?

This question keeps coming up and while media may have been quite negative with their doom and gloom predictions, IoT, AI, and automation may not mean large-scale job losses. But disruption is inevitable and AI has got even software engineers fearing the worst.

According to McKinsey, as automation of knowledge and physical work advances, a lot of jobs will be redefined rather than completely eliminated (at least in the short-term).

So what does that really mean?

McKinsey’s research suggests that whether you have a degree or not, we will all have to adapt with the adoption of IoT and AI. This is already happening and what we are seeing now is companies investing in their employees rather than eliminating them.

Incorporating AI in enterprises requires not only investments in technologies and software that support implementation, but also training and skills development for employees who will be working alongside it.

While AI can definitely make enterprises function faster and make better business decisions, it’s critical to find a balance between AI and human workers. The shift in learning is not only important for the workforce today, but also for generations to come.

As a result, in the future, you can expect advanced AI systems to make up the fabric of every industry, but it will be supported by human workers with the right expertise that can work intimately with this technology.

AI Can Identify Patterns and Anomalies, Not Solve Problems

As far as technology professionals are concerned, they can rest easy knowing that they have an important role to play for decades to come. While AI might be able to efficiently identify and solve problems in about twenty or thirty years, at the moment, we are far from it.

At present, AI is getting pretty good at identifying patterns and anomalies in production and environments. Once identified, it then notifies humans about this information (which may not have been possible to detect without AI).

But when it comes to finding and solving the problem, it’s human ingenuity and creativity that makes the difference. In the end, we humans won’t have to simply endure this technological disruption, instead, we will all help shape it as it quickly becomes an important part of our future.

You can also expect AI and IoT to amplify and empower humans by creating new industries, improve our quality of life, and create new opportunities for the underprivileged. As a result, we should all change our perception from “man versus machine” to “man together with the machine.”

The data generated by IoT devices along with other technological sources like AI need to be put to good use. One approach that brings everything together is business process management software like Pulpstream.

This innovative technology negates the need to have a background in computer science to build business-centric applications. By just engaging in dragging and dropping, anyone can quickly build business process automation applications to enhance work streams and operations.

According to research from MIT’s Center for Digital Business, the following dimension of skills will keep humans relevant in the digital age:

PhysicalPhysical strength, dexterity, and stamina can’t be replaced by technology. In fact, there are very few jobs that have zero physical requirements. In the future, just like today, most office jobs will require a little bit of physical activity.

EquipmentKnowing how to use equipment, selecting the right tools, and the technical know-how to troubleshoot problems will keep humans in the workforce.

SupervisionSupervising people and ensuring that tasks are completed through peers will remain a relevant skill in the years to come.

AwarenessWhen you’re working in the field or in a chaotic environment, it will be critical to properly understand this environment. As a result, degree or no degree, human intervention in these situations will continue to be important.

PerceptionResearch also suggests that the ability to focus on the details and find the needle in the haystack will also be a human function that will continue to play a vital role.

TeamworkThose who are personable and work well in teams will also flourish in a digital world. This is because regardless of the industry, those who can efficiently manage stressful situations and difficult people will be needed for businesses to remain relevant.

InitiativeThose who possess the ability to start and finish things effectively won’t have to worry about being replaced by technology in the near future.

So do you have any of these skills listed above? No matter where you stand at the moment, we all have to make an effort to get better at several of them.

These skills and the effective use of business process management software will sufficiently prepare you and continue to keep you relevant in the future of work.

A common scenario within the technology ecosystem is a shortage of IT talent to meet the demands of digital transformation. This is true across industries; and with the uncertainties surrounding highly-skilled immigration, the situation isn’t going to get better any time soon.

In the industrial enterprise space, there has been a lot of effort expended on reducing work-related injuries, costly litigation, and the resulting workers’ compensation claims. But efforts to digitally transform this process for the modern workplace has the potential to quickly feel overwhelming.

You can easily find yourself asking questions like “I need a new audit and inspection process solution, but my developers have a backlog, how do I respond to it? Is a cloud-native, low-code application development platform the right choice?”

If you’re asking these types of questions, the answers is a resounding yes!

This is the primary reason why low-code application development platforms are growing in popularity within industrial enterprises. The low-code approach is also a great solution to this problem. It’s efficient and effective for legacy system modernization.

With the no-code approach, environment, health, and safety (EHS) process management applications can be developed and implemented rapidly without involving your (backlogged) IT department.

By adopting a robust cloud-native, low-code application development platform, organizations can benefit from significant acceleration when it comes to software development. This is because the low-code app development method utilizes a drag-and-drop interface to quickly develop apps without writing a single line of code.

When it comes to enterprise EHS software, in particular, this drag-and-drop feature can empower staff to mitigate risk within their own departments by quickly developing and deploying apps to conduct safety audits and visual inspections.

This approach also has the potential to expedite safety checks to enhance workforce safety and maintain compliance. This type of industrial hygiene management application can be rapidly developed and deployed with minimal investment upfront.

Low-code app development takes the pressure off IT

HR departments also have been under significant pressure to attract top IT talent to engage in digital transformation. This means that they are always competing for a small pool of experienced developers with exorbitant remuneration packages.

When organizations embrace the low-code app development approach, anyone can rapidly build their own innovative apps. As a result, a significant amount of pressure will be taken off HR teams and IT teams. What’s more, companies can also enhance productivity while benefiting from significant savings by reducing enterprise risk.

Another advantage of utilizing citizen developers is the fact that the very same people who will benefit from using the EHS software will be the ones building it. They will be able to quickly respond to usability pitfalls and ensure an enhanced user experience (UX).

Even if every department has it’s own app, all of them will have the option of seamlessly accessing the same data that’s stored in the cloud. This means that administrators, safety inspectors, and auditors will be allowed to contribute and access the same data in different ways.

The low-code approach accelerates adoption

Modernizing EHS processes can be difficult, but ensuring adoption can be even harder. This is because employees who have been using legacy systems for years can be averse to change.

However, in this scenario, the end-users themselves are involved in the creation of the application. As a result, they are already invested in it. This, in turn, can help significantly increase uptake as you’re giving them a say when it comes to how data is retrieved and modified within the app.

If the project demands some custom coding, it can be handled by one developer, not the entire IT team. Furthermore, low-code platforms like Pulpstream include tools to manage the development, deployment and update processes. As a result, developers aren’t burdened by legacy system modernization endeavors, which traditionally have taken a very long time.

All this can be achieved effectively while maintaining enhanced security and compliance. In a highly-regulated industry, the no-code approach can ensure that you stay ahead of deadlines.

As industrial enterprises go through a period of rapid digital transformation, low-code development will continue to grow in importance as it reduces the complexity and costs associated with developing great EHS software. What’s more, reducing complexity means faster time to solution.

The cloud-native low-code application development enables enterprises to be better equipped to quickly respond and adapt to changes. It will play a critical role in ensuring that industrial enterprises remain relevant in the months and years to come.

Workers’ compensation claims management can be a time and resource-intensive activity for both employees and HR departments. This is because managing workers’ compensation demands multiple processes like risk management, risk mitigation, and various HR claims management protocols to ensure that injured employees receive benefits.

This also means effectively complying with employment laws that provide protection under collective bargaining agreements like the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

While the traditional HR approach to workers’ compensations can quickly get convoluted, claims management software can help efficiently streamline and better manage workflows to reduce processing times and related costs.

Key benefits of digitizing workers’ compensation management processes

By engaging in low-code, cloud-native application development, enterprises can achieve a lot more by customizing the app to in-house processes. As the application will be customized to meet the specific needs of the organization, it can be key to eliminating any confusion surrounding workers’ compensation claims.

As the whole process can be efficiently managed on a centralized platform with adequate access to all stakeholders, HR departments can benefit by significantly reducing the time and money it costs to process a claim.

This type of cross-platform, mobile application can also play a critical role in preventing injuries. This is because key insights can be rapidly derived from the data collected from IoT devices, wearable technology, and incident histories.

This data can be visualized automatically and quickly communicated to employees along with recommendations on how they can protect themselves. This can even come in the form of training videos and activities embedded within the app.

Additionally, the workers compensation app can also be used as a tool to deliver telemedicine by directing the injured employee to their preferred medical provider. Claims can also be better managed by providing customized alerts. For example, a notification can be delivered via the app when a prescription is ready.

This approach can also eliminate the confusion that surrounds workers’ compensation. The traditional method involved injuries being reported to different parts of the enterprise. What’s more, employees were often unsure about what to report and who to report it to.

This approach also resulted in a lot of inconsistencies when employees filled out the forms. For example, when it came to answering questions about where an accident occurred, some workers may write answers that range from the company’s address to the hospital where they were admitted.

As a result, these mistakes can quickly add to processing times and increase the workload of HR departments trying to push the paperwork through. However, all this can be avoided by taking advantage of automated forms that connect employee data along with witness statements.

Furthermore, once the incident has been reported, it can be immediately accessed by the safety officer, supervisor, HR, and third-party claims administrators. As everything will be organized and accessible on a unified dashboard, future proofing operations for changes in the workforce, technology, or corporate policy will be a seamless experience.

Cloud-native vs. on-premise deployment

As businesses embrace digital transformation, the cloud-native or on-premise deployment of server infrastructure debate usually comes up. A few years ago, the primary concern was security, but this is no longer an issue as cloud vendors have strict security standards to keep sensitive data secure.

When it comes to workers’ compensation, there are some functionality issues that companies will have to consider. While most of the features are generally available on both cloud-native and on-premise solutions, there are some notable differences.

Cloud-native is a better approach for claims management as it provides enhanced mobile accessibility. On-premise deployments often demand third-party clients to enable communication between on-premise software and mobile devices.

As a result, costs can quickly add up while incorporation and effective infrastructure management can get complicated. As more enterprises embrace a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiative to accommodate a rapidly evolving workforce, mobility will be key going forward.

This is because anyone within the company can engage in app development by taking advantage of Pulpstream’s drag-and-drop development model, without writing a single line of code. Furthermore, workers compensation apps can be built within hours or days, not months, and can be adapted seamlessly as organizational processes evolve.

As a result, when considering the long-term implications of deploying an enterprise workers compensation app, a cloud-native approach can go a long way to help reduce the time and costs associated with processing claims for HR departments across industries.

Enterprise digital transformation is enabling the creation of safer workplaces by leveraging recent innovative technologies like environmental health and safety software (or EHS software). This approach is not only optimizing safety programs (and its associated costs) but also enhancing engagement amongst employees and saving time spent on reporting compliance procedures.

When an accident occurs, staff can use their mobile devices to record the event, capture rich data (including photos and geolocations), and assign corrective actions on the spot. The same is true when it comes to conducting safety audits and recording near misses (or safety observations).

All this data can be utilized to automate pattern detection in safety programs. What’s more, this technology can also be used to create and enhance a company-wide action plan to respond to events in real-time.

How does automated pattern detection work?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can be enabled to recognize people, objects, and equipment by utilizing advanced image recognition. By building models based on the data entered into the EHS software, historical data, and other external sources of data, ML algorithms can use pattern recognition to identify anomalies, outliers, and exceptions to alert staff about a potential hazard.

Automated pattern detection can provide in-depth insights that companies can use to develop a robust company-wide action plan. This information can also be used to take preventive corrective actions to avoid a potential accident.

As a result, this technology combined with EHS software has the potential to reduce the number of fatalities reported across industries. According to the United States Department of Labor, there were 4,379 worker fatalities in the private sector in 2015. Out of these, 21.4% or 937 fatalities were directly attributed to the construction industry.

The leading cause of death in the construction industry were workers falling off the building site (38.8%). This was followed by objects striking workers (9.6%), electrocution (8.6%), and getting caught in/between things like heavy machinery (7.2%).

Automated pattern detection in safety programs can help tackle this problem by enhancing the presence and proper use of personal protective equipment. In this scenario, this technology can be utilized to analyze CCTV footage in real-time to alert individuals who have failed to wear their hard hats or safety harnesses.

It’s also a tool that can help safety officers rapidly conduct safety audits of large areas with a considerable number of workers. Furthermore, this technology can also be leveraged to engage in predictive maintenance by analyzing data collected from multiple sensors and IoT devices.

By engaging in this activity, there is real potential to reduce workplace accidents that can occur as a result of equipment malfunction.

Building a digitized company-wide action plan

The key to developing an action plan in this scenario is customizable, cloud-native EHS software. This is because every industry and every enterprise is different and will require customization to ensure that the data is captured in an efficient manner.

With a cloud-native EHS software platform like Pulpstream, companies can customize their solutions to support their action plans without ever having to write a single line of code. As a company evolves, solutions can be updated with a simple drag-and-drop feature to respond appropriately and immediately to potential incidents.

This technology can also be adapted to incorporate automated pattern detection technology to ensure early visibility to risk. As a result, staff can be alerted by AI about a potential problem which can then be addressed immediately and effectively with a cloud-native mobile application.

As enterprises will be managing their EHS processes and workflows in a cloud, data can be seamlessly collected from multiple sources and everyone within the organization can be updated in real-time.

This decentralized approach also enhances transparency and accountability while improving compliance and communication. This means that organizations can also utilize this application to delegate and track actions to maintain a (complete) safety audit trail.

Automated pattern detection, in essence, helps monitor the workforce across the company. When health and safety officers are supported by this technology, they can rapidly understand real workplace risks and respond to them effectively through the creation and prioritization of action plans. This will also empower the business to effectively use its resources by channeling it where it can make the biggest impact.

When automated pattern detection and EHS software is incorporated into company’s infrastructure and working culture, it has the potential to not only create a safer workplace environment but also save lives.

If a company is just collecting contractor certificates of insurance for only confirmation of receipt, it’s simply not enough. When businesses don’t track contractor certificate of insurance expiration dates, they also leave themselves exposed to risk.

The costs of incorrect endorsements, uninsured claims, and lawsuits can have a significant financial impact on a business’ bottom line. Tracking and managing certificates of insurance with digital business process automation can make confirming all endorsements, limits, requirements, and expirations a seamless experience.

Better connecting the job site and the office

Like most industries, the commercial construction industry is going through a period of digital transformation. It’s now possible to seamlessly connect a job site to the office to efficiently manage building projects. New software tools have enabled construction companies to automate time-consuming processes like collecting and confirming certificate of insurance expiration dates from suppliers and subcontractors.

When companies start using certificate of insurance contractor risk management applications, identifying compliance levels becomes much simpler. Attributing lapsed coverage, or the lack of verification processes, or verifying that the coverage meets the contract requirements can be accomplished in much less time with digital business process management.

When lapses and noncompliance issues can be identified quickly, businesses can rapidly lower their exposure to risk. The company can demand that insurance coverage is resumed or adequate coverage has been put in place before restarting work on the project.

Notably, when you leverage a low-code, digital business process automation tool like Pulpstream, you can customize the management of your unique insurance processes without writing a single line of code. Any application you build for this purpose can be rapidly adapted to enable any business requirement, including the seamless collection of certificates from subcontractors. You can use a cloud-native platform or migrate your data from a subcontractor’s insurance agent.

Once a certificate is uploaded, the software would be able to read the information, identify policy numbers, policy limits, expiration dates, and other requirements much faster than any human could. After the data is recorded, it would automatically be verified against the contract requirements. To achieve this without automation, several staff members would be required to enter the information on the certificate and manually verify compliance. What’s more, they would have to conduct follow-ups themselves to ensure that insurance coverage has been resumed to match requirements of the contract.

With digital process automation, businesses can evolve with emerging consumer expectations. An email or text message could be sent immediately to the subcontractor or their agent for resolution. What’s more, as this process takes place in real-time, your exposure to risk can be reduced considerably and managed much more efficiently.

A cloud-native solution enables unprecedented efficiency

By digitizing the whole tracking process, businesses would have the ability to store all the certificates in a centralized location. So whether the company is managing 50 certificates or 1,500 certificates, the digital tracking system would be able to provide rapid access to the certificates needed for a claim or an audit.

As Pulpstream is a cloud-native solution, it allows all stakeholders to access certificates from anywhere in the world. This means that you can access all the certificates, notes, milestone progress, and ownership seamlessly from a single location. Furthermore, businesses can create data insight dashboards that enable all departments to view key performance indicators in real-time. This means that project managers can now quickly check if a subcontractor is compliant and insured before allowing them on a site.

As construction companies continue to engage second-tier and third-tier subcontractors on projects, it’s more critical than ever to effectively manage exposure to risk. When the insurance of these lower-tier subcontractors isn’t monitored, you can leave yourself open to major losses.

Automating this process with a low-code cloud-native business process automation platform like Pulpstream is the perfect solution to ensure compliance by making sure that insurance coverage hasn’t expired.

What’s more, this approach will enable businesses to save time and money by efficiently and effectively managing their exposure to risk.

Imagine the world in which you don’t have to engage in all the annoying and painfully tedious tasks at work. Instead, these functions are digitized and automated to free you up to focus on more meaningful work.

This is the promise of the digital age that’s been rapidly embraced across industries. This approach enables enterprises to take advantage of proven use-case templates employed by business leaders who have traversed the lands and internalized the lessons gleaned from perilous business predicaments.

By engaging in digital process automation that reuses only the best, most productive parts of business processes, enterprises can evolve their revenue-generating capacity. This negates the need to expend resources to develop, test, and tweak processes over a considerable period of time, which results in significant savings.

What are the key benefits of reusing use-case templates?

Reusing a business use-case template on a low-code application development platform acts like a workflow diagram that allows the seamless mapping and automation of repeatable functions. It enables businesses to focus on innovation and improvement without trying to reinvent the wheel.

This approach reduces costs and redundancies as staff would have more time to focus on new mission-critical initiatives. Once the use-case template has been implemented to work for the organization, it would be set up to drive automated best business practices.

This model also creates an opportunity to start new projects almost immediately and boost productivity. The latter could be directly attributed to employee empowerment that’s born out of not having to repeatedly engage in mind-numbing work. A light is shined on the potential opportunities to cut costs. This approach also drives consistency and clarity as best practices are followed every step of the way.

Where to reuse use-case templates?

Reusing proven use-case templates to successfully engage in digital process automation is a no-brainer when it comes to mundane administrative functions. This approach can also be extended to areas like expense approvals, safety inspections, and leave of absence requests. Going forward, businesses would operate in an environment that’s structured to achieve enhanced operation agility. But to make this a reality, tried and tested use-case templates need to be leveraged. This would enable not just digital automation, but intelligent automation.

To reap the benefits of intelligent automation, enterprises also need to prepare their workforce to take full advantage of the changes that would take place in the near future. This means that staff should be primed to embrace new ways of working that will be the end result of automated workflows.

Business leaders have to invest and strive to create an environment where innovation and new skills are encouraged while paving the way for experimentation, opportunity, and growth. Reusing use-cases doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with the design of the template. Rather, processes can be adapted in real-time to better fit your business and meet ever-changing business conditions.

When you utilize a cloud-native, low-code application development platform like Pulpstream, you’re actually engaging in code reuse, so there won’t be any need to write a single line of code. As this digital business process automation tool is cloud-native, it can also be shared across departments to empower staff to play an active role in process automation.This means that organizations could successfully break the silo mentality in favor of enhanced communication between departments. What’s more, automating transversal business processes that require the collaboration across multiple departments can also be achieved without having to engage IT professionals.

The future of work is destined to evolve into activities that are more important and meaningful. To successfully realize it, it will be imperative to implement proven methods when business processes are automated.

In the end, this approach helps organizations reduce costs while engaging in digital transformation. When successfully deployed, it will also have the potential to identify and create new revenue streams.

Digital tools are at the forefront of streamlining workplace tasks today. When it comes to completing a case or a task at work, the right tools can inspire productivity or apathy. Tools that are growing more common in the workplace are mobile apps that store and process information in the cloud. The user experience (UX) employees have while using these tools is very important. The UX can increase employee morale, invigorate a work ethic, prompt self-efficacy, and more.

What is an Intuitive User Experience?

This is a question more common than one may think. When employees at a Microsoft office were asked what made them think of a piece of computer equipment as more intuitive, the answers were quite mixed. The main idea is that when an employee looks at a software program, they should be able to figure out exactly how it works at first glance.

If an employee looks at a program (such as Photoshop, for example) for the first time they may see all the tool icons, become overwhelmed, and give up before starting. (Photoshop has so many options that you need training to use it.) The idea behind an intuitive user experience is much different. Intuitive user experiences enable a person to look at a program for the very first time and feel confident that he or she “gets it,”and can figure out what they need to do to get the job done.

The confidence an intuitive user experience provides staff is enormous; and the fact that it eliminates time that would otherwise be spent on extensive training, saves a company money. Jobs are also completed faster when employees have a great user experience with their work tools.

In addition to being easy to use, and usable at first glance, an intuitively designed user experience will have the following:

Speed A good UI can make a program work faster. This accelerates task and case completion.

Simplicity Displaying only the needed features helps guide employees to the best practices. It also reduces the amount of time spent deciding which path to take.

Navigation Simple navigation with very little text and clear action buttons point users exactly where they need to go.

Optimization The ability to continuously improve and optimize liberates organizations from the shackles of hard-coded software.

Dr. Alexander Pasik, CIO for IEEE, states that a consistent intuitive user experience is key to developing great web software in general. Ease of use is no longer an obstacle for technology companies that want to make great software. When it comes creating tools for work, such as dynamic case management, an intuitive user experience is essential. Companies such as Pulpstream allow customers from any industry to deliver new or optimized work tools in a matter of hours.

Low-code application development empowers employees to look at a work tool and immediately understand what they need to do. When an organization is multinational, or simply attempting to align business initiatives across borders, intuitive work experiences are vital to success. The right tools can jam up a workforce, or open the floodgates of productivity.